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William Storm, Ph.D.

William Storm, Ph.D.Visiting Assistant Professor of Englishwstorm@eastern.eduAt Eastern Since 2015

Education

Ph.D., Marquette UniversityM.A., University of MississippiB.A., Marquette University

Courses Taught

College WritingMasterpieces of European Literature ISurvey of British Literature IShakespeareChaucer and Medieval LiteratureRenaissance StudiesMilton and the Seventeenth Century

Why I Teach at Eastern

Students are being pulled in so many different directions—school, family, faith, and finances. Such demands can alter the ways we view the world, causing us to focus on ourselves and immediate goals. A recent article in Science by Kidd and Castano discussed the idea that reading literature changes a reader’s ability to understand emotions and motivations of other people. Reading literature, then, allows us to see the world in new ways, seeing new perspectives, and forcing us to investigate our own responses to people, beliefs, and ideas. I believe that literature also offers an ability to understand the human experience through ways that employ critical judgment, illuminating specific concerns within a historical context. So literature not only allows these students to view the human experience in broader terms than they might normally, but literature also gives students the opportunity to understand that we leave behind cultural artifacts that reflect the beliefs and interests of our world.

Research Interests

My research interests range from medieval aesthetics to Ricardian politics, and from medieval poetry to theories of space and place. These interests mean that I look at how authors/artists attempt to create beauty for an audience, how politics influence culture and literature, how medieval poets create their works, and how authors/artists understand their surroundings. To be more specific, my work focuses on the intersection of important societal and cultural institutions and literature, primarily of the later fourteenth century and the court of Richard II; however, the middle ages spanned over a thousand years—depending on the location and who is defining it—so such concerns can be seen beyond the years of 1377-1400 and the narrow confines of English society. I am currently working on two larger projects. The most immediate is the revision of my dissertation into a book that looks at how medieval authors “create” heaven in ways that extend beyond theological or doctrinal concerns. I have also begun research on literary representations of marriage that populate the works of Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, the Pearl-poet, and various romances.

Select Articles

"The Arbor and the Pearl:Encapsulating in 'Spot,'" Glossator: Practice and Theory of Commentary. Volume 9, 2015.